


Memento Mori

by Mithen



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Grief, Hate Sex, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-09
Updated: 2010-04-09
Packaged: 2017-10-08 19:34:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/78820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mithen/pseuds/Mithen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce Wayne visits Lexcorp for threats, promises, and more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memento Mori

The first time Bruce Wayne walks into Lex Luthor's offices after that day, he stops dead at the sight:  a glass case, the red-and-blue uniform carefully displayed in it.  The jagged rent across the emblem has been artfully arranged.

Bruce struggles against nausea, bile rising in his throat.  "I didn't know you were in the habit of keeping _trophies,_" he says to the man behind the desk.

Luthor rises and strolls to stand beside the case, resting a possessive hand on it.  "I prefer to think of it as a..._memento mori_," he says.  His voice is smooth, urbane.  The hand curls into a fist;  he seems almost unaware of it.  "It shouldn't have been him."

"I couldn't agree more."

There is a long pause in which Luthor's placid smile congeals.  "I'm going to kill you someday," he says as if talking about the weather.

"You're welcome to try."

Something leaps in Luthor's eyes.  _"You were supposed to keep him safe," _he snarls.

Bruce walks up to the case and looks into it.  He's too close to Luthor now.  It's dangerous.  "You're a smug, arrogant bastard who never deserved him," he says, his eyes on the torn symbol.  "I loathe your hubris.  I hate your pride.  I despise your cruelty."

"The feeling is very much mutual," Luthor says, and Bruce makes a mistake:  he meets the other man's eyes.

Then there's a hand between legs, hot and greedy, and a body being shoved against glass.  There are curses, and torn clothing, and sounds neither of them will want to remember later.

It isn't tenderness.  It isn't even lust. 

It isn't _anything_, and it's all they've got left now.

The case might break, Bruce thinks dimly at one point.  It could shatter, the shards cutting into fragile flesh...

But it's made of good strong Lexcorp glass, and reinforced with Waynetech steel rods, and it doesn't shatter, of course.

Other things might have, but most certainly not the case.

After, Lex Luthor produces a linen handkerchief and meticulously wipes the case clean of sweat and cum and--and any other bodily fluids that might have been wasted on it.  He straightens and looks at Bruce, who's buttoning his pants.  "Get out," he says.

"I'm going to destroy you," says Bruce.

"You're welcome to try," Luthor says.  His fingers clench in the wet handkerchief.  "Better men than you have tried and failed."

Bruce turns on his heel and goes, because he's afraid his expression might match Luthor's at that moment, and he can't bear that.

In the elevator, he rests his forehead against the cool metal wall and feels a smile skin his lips over his teeth.  The events set in motion today will play out inexorably.  Luthor will get careless, or get lucky, and one of the two of them will be dead soon enough.

_Memento mori. _

Remember that you will die.

The smile tastes like broken glass, but he can't seem to make it go away.

Someday soon, one of them will finally get what he wants.


End file.
